New Chair of the OECD's Committee on Fiscal Affairs elected

26/01/2011 - The OECD is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Chair of its Committee on Fiscal Affairs (CFA), Mr. Masatsugu Asakawa of Japan. Mr Asakawa takes up his duties in June 2011, replacing Mr. Paolo Ciocca of Italy. The Committee is the leading global body for setting international standards for tax and oversees the creation and maintenance of publications such as the OECD Model Tax Convention, which forms the basis for more than 3 000 bilateral tax treaties, the Transfer Pricing Guidelines and regular publications such as Revenue Statistics and Taxing Wages, which assist governments in reforming their taxes.

Mr. Asakawa is Deputy Vice Minister for International Affairs of the Japanese Ministry of Finance. He has held many senior positions in the Japanese government including Executive Assistant to the Prime Minister; Director, Development Policy Division, Foreign Exchange Markets Division, International Bureau, as well as Director, International Tax Policy Division, Tax Bureau and various other positions in the Ministry of Finance. He also has extensive experience in important areas other than taxation including macroeconomic management, international finance and environmental issues through his work at the Finance Ministry, the IMF, the Asian Development Bank and as the Executive Assistant to the Prime Minister. He thus brings a wide range of relevant skills and experience to lead the Committee’s work on the broad spectrum of issues it must address to help governments and other stakeholders respond to the challenges of globalisation. Mr. Asakawa has previously held leadership positions within the Committee as a Bureau member (2002-2005, 2009-), Co-Chair of the Forum on Harmful Tax Practices (2002-2004), Co-Chair of the Board for Co-operation with Non-OECD Economies (2002-2004, 2009-) and currently serves as a Vice Chair of the Peer Review Group of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. He holds degrees from Princeton University and the University of Tokyo.

Commenting on his election, Mr. Asakawa said, “I look forward to taking over the Committee on Fiscal Affairs during these times of great change and global challenges. Tax issues are implicated in some of the major challenges governments face: restoring growth, addressing climate change, fostering cross border trade and investment, spurring innovation, supporting sustainable development and statebuilding, countering money laundering and corruption. The Committee has a wealth of knowledge and expertise to contribute to these issues and I welcome the opportunity to work with other OECD Committees and stakeholders to make progress in these areas. I am particularly pleased that during my tenure, a key focus of the OECD will be to strengthen its relations with countries beyond the current OECD membership. Having co-chaired the CFA’s Board for Co-operation with non-OECD economies for several years, this will be a major priority for my Chairmanship.”